MHA likely to slash central grants for police modernisation to many states due to lack of basic infra

As per the government statistics, 257 police stations across the country do not have vehicles with the maximum police station in Andhra Pradesh (135), followed by Uttar Pradesh (75). Similarly, nine police stations each in Manipur and Meghalaya, eight police stations in Himachal Pradesh, and seven police stations in Punjab do not have vehicles.

New Delhi: The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is exploring the possibility to cut or minimize the police modernization grants to many States as they have not been able to provide even the basic requirements in the police stations in their respective states, ETV Bharat has learned from reliable sources.

A senior official in the MHA told ETV Bharat that several police stations across India are not having vehicles, telephone, and wireless connectivity in spite of police modernization grants being released by the Centre to the said States and UTs. "We have been repeatedly asking all the States and UTs to have basic facilities like vehicles, telephone, and even wireless connectivity which are a requisite for maintaining law and order," the official said. Police modernization grants scheme seeks to bring under its fold many smart schemes primarily aimed at facilitating and assisting the various state police forces, both in terms of finance and infrastructure degradation.

According to the statistics, the central government has announced Rs 2754.16 crore for police modernization in Budget Estimate (BE) 2022-23. Under different sub-schemes, the central share is released to the States based on the submission of utilization certificates. During the year 2021-22, under the scheme of "Assistance to States and UTs for Modernisation of Police", the actual allocation was Rs 620.45 crore out of which Rs 89.17 crore has been released till December 31, 2021.

The States which got the allocation are Chhattisgarh (Rs 5.44 crore), Karnataka (Rs 31.43 crore), Rajasthan (Rs 13.53 crore), Tripura (Rs 6.75 crore), and Uttar Pradesh (Rs 32.02 crore). As per the government statistics, 257 police stations across the country do not have vehicles with the maximum police station in Andhra Pradesh (135), followed by Uttar Pradesh (75). Similarly, nine police stations each in Manipur and Meghalaya, eight police stations in Himachal Pradesh, and seven police stations in Punjab do not have vehicles.

Similarly, 638 police stations across India don't have telephones where Assam tops the list with 141, followed by J&K 79, Uttar Pradesh 75, Punjab 69, and Manipur 64. Talking on the issue, Prakash Singh, former director-general of Uttar Pradesh police said that it is very much necessary to take certain strong actions against those states which don't have even the basic infrastructure at their police stations.

"At this present time, when lawbreakers use sophisticated gadgets, it's hard to believe that many of our police stations don't have even vehicles and telephones," said Singh. He asserted that the central government always extends its support to develop the infrastructure of the State police force "but there are several States which are not able to utilize the funds."